You Thought the Injury Was the Worst Part
When someone is hurt at work — in body or psychologically — families assume healing begins with care. Employers trust that the premiums they pay will protect their people.
What many discover is that recovery can be decided far from the consulting room — shaped by thresholds, classifications and policies set by people they will never meet.
An evidence-informed documentary series investigating what happens after a workplace injury in Australia — and how a system designed to protect people evolved into a complex insurance architecture that now shapes recovery in ways most families and businesses do not see.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of Australians are seriously injured or fall ill due to work. In 1926, New South Wales made workers’ compensation insurance premiums compulsory for employers. In 2026, that system reaches its centenary.
Over the past century, what began as social protection has become highly procedural. You expect to see a doctor after being injured at work. Instead, you are introduced to a new language — impairment percentages, eligibility tests, time limits and internal assessments. Behind the scenes, financial sustainability targets, policy settings and, in some cases, automated systems help determine who qualifies, how long support lasts, and what an injury is considered to be worth.
Meanwhile, families are trying to recover — and some doctors are questioning whether the process is designed primarily to support healing, or to control the financial liability of the scheme.
Shattered asks a measured but urgent question:
After 100 years, does the system still align with its original promise of protection?
Grounded in social history, expert analysis, and public record.
Investigation conducted 2023–2025. Filming concluded in late 2025.
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Reflect
On your how you can end the stigma and your place in changing the narrative
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Respond
By speaking out about the harm done to the injured and their families, and changing the narrative
Take Your Tribe
Episode 1 - Origins of Control
Workers’ compensation was born in the industrial age — a promise of protection in exchange for risk. In towns like Lithgow, injury was expected. Compensation laws stabilised labour, reassured employers and underpinned economic growth. Over time, the language shifted. Bodies became percentages. Suffering became data. By the late twentieth century, computerised claims systems such as Colossus and formal impairment thresholds began reshaping how eligibility and duration of support were determined.
From industrial registers to digital platforms, Episode One traces how social protection evolved into a structured insurance framework — and asks: When protection becomes calculation, what happens to care?
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Collaborate with us to expand education to more communities.
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Training
Build moral courage and systems awareness in your organisation.
Events
Throw your support behind a national day of Healing.
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Environmental Analysis
Examine wider community and identify audiences and assumptions playing into existing narrative. Fact Check. Is it true?
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Strategic Storytelling
Facts tell, stories sell. As necessary correct the backstory with facts, evidence and stories.
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Show New Story
People are wired for stories. Use memes, images, metaphors and channels of communication that resonate with audience. Keep it human and authentic.
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Journey With New Story
It takes time to change a dysfunctional story. Stay the course. Measure and adjust. Build collaborative partnerships of care to embed new story.
Our Framework
We are currently fact checking a number of ambiguous and inconsistent issues that we have identified across other platforms to clarify. Accordingly, this website will be updated on a regular basis so please check back. If you have information that you would like us to consider, please use the contact page and we will be in touch. We appreciate your time.
Evidence-Informed. Non-Partisan.
Shattered is an independent documentary grounded in social history, parliamentary material, and regulatory records.
It is not aligned with any political party or institution.
Its purpose is clarity — and accountability.
#shattereddoco
Episode 1 - 100 Years On
From blast furnaces to digitised claims environments, the architecture of compensation has evolved. Psychological injury, burnout and administrative triage now intersect with legislated thresholds and performance metrics. In some jurisdictions, algorithmic tools assist decision-making. Across all jurisdictions in Australia, financial sustainability shapes policy settings.
For families, the experience can feel bewildering.
For employers, it can feel opaque.
For injured workers, it can feel destabilising.
In an era where employers carry positive duties to manage psychosocial risk, the series asks a difficult question: What happens when the process of seeking compensation becomes a source of psychological strain itself? Shattered examines whether system design still serves recovery — or whether redesign is required.
